Make a mint

The Closure of Edinburgh’ s Museum on the Mound is regrettable and unjustified, but the board of Lloyds Banking Group has already shown its lack of concern for Edinburgh with the sale of the formerBritish Linen Bank headquartersin St Andrew Square, so nothing should surprise us. It would certainly be reasonable to anticipate that the entire building on the Mound will, sooner or later, be up for grabs.

This would be a disaster for Edinburgh, no doubt, but perhaps it offers an opportunity to bring relief to another of our major historic buildings, the Royal High School.

If the Rosewood Hotel Group are so determined to have a “luxury international hotel” in Edinburgh might they not be better advised to enter discussion with Lloyds with a view to acquiring its Mound building? They could then finally walk away from their toxic proposals to over- develop Thomas Hamilton’ s masterpiece on Calton Hill.

Adding“Mickey Mouse ears” type extensions would, of course, be out of the question on Edinburgh’ s famous skyline – at least, let’s hope so.

DAVID J BLACK St Giles Street, Edinburgh